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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the “Isolated Confinement Restriction Act” on December 5.
Commentary December 14, 2016
What Chris Christie Got Wrong About Solitary Confinement
Scope, purpose, duration — in short, everything
By Daniel Teehan
At the ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado, the Department of Justice’s inspector general found mentally ill inmates held in solitary confinement despite a 2014 change in policy meant to improve their care.
News July 12, 2017
Federal Watchdog Finds Mentally Ill Are Stuck in Solitary
A new report contradicts a claim from the Bureau of Prisons.
By
Feature June 28, 2015
This is Rikers
From the people who live and work there.
By The Marshall Project
A photo collage shows Bobby Everson in a tan prison outfit in front of abstract paintings, an image of the U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois, and a handwritten letter.
Feature May 31, 2022
How the Newest Federal Prison Became One of the Deadliest
Fatal beatings. A “torture room.” Pairs of men held around the clock in tiny cells, tempers rising. “They’re literally afraid for their lives,” one lawyer said.
By , The Marshall Project and Joseph Shapiro, NPR
Feature June 11, 2015
From Solitary to the Street
What happens when prisoners go from complete isolation to complete freedom in a day?
By
The federal prison complex in Thomson, Illinois.
News June 14, 2022
Lawmakers Call for Probe Into Deadly Federal Prison
Following a Marshall Project/NPR report detailing violence and abuse at the newest federal penitentiary, three members of Congress asked the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate.
By , The Marshall Project and Joseph Shapiro, NPR
The solitary cell at Menard Correctional Facility in Illinois where Bernard Simmons was found dead.
Justice Talk March 31, 2016
Highlights From Our Justice Talk On Solitary Confinement
From comparisons to “Orange Is the New Black” to accounts from people who spent time in solitary, this is what you missed in our chat with Digg.
By
A solitary confinement cell at New York City’s Riker’s Island jail.
Analysis November 30, 2016
Who’s in Solitary Confinement?
By , and
Colette Peters, a White woman in a red suit jacket and short brown hair, speaks, as Michael Horowitz, a White man in a navy suit jacket and white hair, looks on.
Closing Argument March 2, 2024
How Federal Prisons Are Getting Worse
Government watchdog agencies found hundreds of preventable deaths and excessive use of solitary confinement.
By and
A collage shows a map of St. Louis, text from a lawsuit, a picture of a Black transgender woman with red braids, a portrait of three Black women standing next to a transgender flag and a picture of a prison.
St. Louis August 21, 2025
A Woman With HIV Spent Six Years in Solitary. She Sued and Missouri Will Change Its Policy.
Honesty Bishop was attacked by her cellmate. Prison officials deemed her sexually active and kept her in isolation for more than 2,000 days.
By Kavahn Mansouri, The Midwest Newsroom, and , The Marshall Project
Case in Point September 22, 2016
Is a Life in Solitary “Cruel and Unusual?”
In Pennsylvania, the heart of solitary confinement reform, an intellectually disabled inmate says he’s been held in wretched isolation for 36 years.
By
Feature October 26, 2016
28 Days in Chains
In this federal prison, inmates have a choice: live with a violent cellmate or end up in shackles.
By and Joseph Shapiro
A man sleeps inside the dormitory at Fannie M. Lewis Community Corrections and Treatment Center, a halfway house for federal inmates, in Cleveland, Ohio.
News October 25, 2018
How Jeff Sessions Is Undermining Trump’s Prison Reform Agenda
The president wants to send more prisoners to halfway houses. The Justice Department is doing exactly the opposite.
By
Life Inside July 13, 2017
My Friend Killed Himself in an Alabama Prison
A rash of suicides in solitary confinement hits an inmate close to home.
By Anonymous as told to
Analysis January 27, 2016
There Are Practically No Juveniles in Federal Prison — Here’s Why
Obama takes bold action, but for a population of fewer than 30
By
Justice Talk March 24, 2016
The Best Reporting on Solitary Confinement
Brush up for our March 30th chat on solitary confinement by reading some of the most crucial journalism on the issue.
By and
Life Inside March 30, 2017
‘I Can Help This Person’
A prison psychologist mourns a patient he tried to save.
By Ryan Quirk as told to
Darrell, who was convicted of sexual assault of his stepdaughter, lived in a tent in Miami-Dade County.
News and Awards June 19, 2019
The Marshall Project Wins an Edward R. Murrow Award
Honored with the national prize for “Excellence in Video.”
By The Marshall Project
Drew Harrison, who has autism, struggled with sensory overload when he was in prison in Virginia.
Feature November 2, 2020
Prison Is Even Worse When You Have a Disability Like Autism
State officials often fail to identify prisoners with developmental disorders, a group that faces overwhelming challenges behind bars, from bright lights to noises to social dynamics.
By
Life Inside June 10, 2021
I Hate to Admit It, but Prison Is a Blessing in Disguise.
Jy’Aire Smith-Pennick suffered multiple traumas before age 18. He masked his pain with Percocet, weed and drug-selling. Now, at a Pennsylvania prison with the right programs, he’s finally starting to heal.
By Jy’Aire Smith-Pennick
News and Awards August 17, 2023
The Marshall Project Wins National Murrow Award for Investigation of Cleveland Court System
The Marshall Project won the Excellence in Innovation Award for its “Testify” series, produced with WOVU radio and Cleveland Documenters.
By The Marshall Project
An illustration shows a Black woman in a cream-colored prison uniform looking at a silhouette of a guard.
Life Inside March 10, 2025
At My Texas Prison, Solitary Confinement All But Guarantees Sexual Exploitation by Guards
Prison journalist Kwaneta Harris on “the hole” at Lane Murray Unit: “It is not uncommon for guards to withhold food unless we take our shirts off.”
By Kwaneta Harris, with Deborah Zalesne
An orange illustration shows a bird’s-eye view of a person in a prison uniform sitting on the edge of a bed, leaning their head on their hands, covered in beads of sweat. The wall is wavy as if from heat and there are cockroaches on the floor.
St. Louis May 14, 2025
These Missouri Prisons Get ‘Brutally Hot.’ In Solitary, It’s Even Worse.
A recent class action lawsuit from the MacArthur Justice Center sheds light on how extreme heat creates life-threatening conditions for those in solitary confinement.
By
An illustration shows a floating white cloth in front of a teal background. A person in an orange outfit exits from within the white cloth, pushing the fabric to the side like a curtain.
St. Louis December 1, 2025
An Overlooked Source of Information in Missouri Prison Deaths: The Coroner
When corrections officials aren’t forthcoming with records, coroners can offer families the details needed to find closure or pursue accountability.
By
A 2010 photo of a facility for sex offenders in Moose Lake, Minn., that housed more than 400 men who have completed their prison sentence.
News September 24, 2017
What To Do With Violent Sex Offenders
The Supreme Court considers whether “civil commitment” is just prison by another name.
By
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